French unrest tests town's unity

By Jonny Dymond
BBC News, Paris

Tourcoing is not such a long way away from Paris.

An hour on one of France's sleek TGV express trains brings you into Lille, the northern city that has been reinvigorated by the Channel Tunnel link; a 15-minute drive from Lille and you are in Tourcoing.

Tourcoing has seen relatively little trouble over the past two weeks

But there is little in Tourcoing to remind you of the City of Light.

Traffic pounds along the town's Rue de Paris with barely a glance left or right. Tourcoing has a tough, knocked-about feel to it.

It is not one of the ghettos that have been lit up night after across France. It has just not got very much going for it right now.

As you drive in, silent or struggling factories line the roads. Outside the small, smart town centre, long rows of terraced houses open out on to narrow pavements.

The cafes are low-ceilinged, sparsely furnished affairs - a far cry from the smart bistros and restaurants of the metropolis.

'Civil war'

Inside one of these cafes sits Rene Declercq, one of four National Front councillors in the town.

A few days ago the Front's leader, Jean Marie Le Pen, described the riots as "civil war". There is already speculation that France's political extremes might benefit from the disturbances.

France's political extremes may benefit from the unrest

Mr Declercq agrees. And he has little time for those who think that the rioters need understanding or assistance.

"We've tried to integrate them for 20 years," he says. "They don't want to be integrated. They say they do this because they have no work. But they burn the places that could employ them."

In the French Republic, integration is the holy grail. Mr Declercq's message is pretty clear: if you don't want to integrate, don't expect any help from France.

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The cafe's weary barman claims not to have much of an opinion. "I don't have time to worry about it," he says. "I work 20 hours a day."

Nevertheless, he is keen to cut some of the wilder claims about the riots down to size. "It's not a war of religion, it's a war of the streets," he says.

In the centre of town, things feel a little less apocalyptic. Far and away the grandest building is the town hall, a late 19th Century lump of grandiose Napoleon III architecture.

From the ornate mosaic floor to the fluted columns topped with sculptures, the building sends out a powerful message about the grandeur and solidity of the Republic.

It is a failure of the Republic - and it needs to be judged on its ability to analyse that failure and find a response Jean Pierre Balduyck Mayor of Tourcoing

But the town's Mayor, Jean Pierre Balduyck, admits that the French Republic is "shaken and unhappy".

"It is a failure of the Republic - and it needs to be judged on its ability to analyse that failure and find a response," he says.

"There's no dialogue. People don't respect each other. It's the result of exclusion and incomprehension."

The mayor appears pensive and puzzled, a long way from the angry condemnations coming from Parisian politicians.

Less divided

If those politicians are searching for some ways forward, they might take a look at the outskirts of Tourcoing.

Ten minutes' drive from the town hall is another pretty bleak-looking area. The residents strolling the streets are a mixed bunch - white, North African and Afro-Caribbean.

The estate is not the most attractive place in the world, but it is new and clean and well kept. Some years ago, rioters pretty much burnt the place to the ground.

With what must have been a lot of money, it was rebuilt. There has been some trouble around here over the past couple of weeks, but little of consequence.

Inside the community centre, boisterous but well behaved children attend an after-school homework class.

They are white, black, brown and everything in between; they, and the neighbourhood, are proof that not everywhere in France is as racially divided as you might have been led to believe.

"Things are quieter around here, because five years ago we reconstructed part of the area," says Andre Mondy, the centre's director. "People understood that we really tried to change things. This is not the case around Paris."

But, Mr Mondy says, the key problem remains unemployment. "There are young immigrants here with degrees - but they can't get jobs because they are called 'Maloud' and have curly hair."

In a tough little place like Tourcoing, you might expect a strong reaction from white French citizens to the riots that have sprung up across the country.

In fact, there is a surprising amount of understanding for the frustrations of France's alienated immigrant classes.

But it only goes so far. Mayor Balduyck believes that if elections were held any time soon, the National Front would sweep them. But, he adds, with some relief, there are still two years to go.